


The Black and White (Will Burn Our Eyes)

by Interjection



Series: The World of Power [2]
Category: Hermitcraft RPF
Genre: (most of them. but eventually all of them), Alternate Character Interpretation, Alternate Universe - Superheroes/Superpowers, Corruption, Gen, Government, Illegal Activities, News Media, Political Alliances, Politics, Superpowers, but they're still recognizable as the same people., companies, concorp, mafia, new hermit order, not real world politics obviously, which is simply to say different backstories have affected the way some Hermits act
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-23
Updated: 2020-12-23
Packaged: 2021-03-11 05:22:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,187
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28269801
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Interjection/pseuds/Interjection
Summary: This is a war, alright, but one to be fought with words instead of guns, under the brands of businesses, not battlefields. It is a war beneath the composed, unassuming ice of Hermiton's surface, cold and silent.The NHO and ConCorp both seek to gain an edge in their conflict. Meanwhile, with the heavy threats two powerful and now warring organizations looming over the City of Hermiton, certain members of its government prepare for the crossfire.And where there is war, there are always outsiders willing to take advantage...---Superpower AU where Scar and Cub own a corporation, the NHO is a mafia, and power is the only universal language.
Relationships: Cubfan135 & GoodTimesWithScar (Video Blogging RPF)
Series: The World of Power [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2071071
Comments: 2
Kudos: 19





	The Black and White (Will Burn Our Eyes)

**Author's Note:**

> Fic 1 of this series can be read [here.](https://archiveofourown.org/works/25775104)

“So that happened,” Cub said. “I hope we have a plan.”

“That’s your job, isn’t it?” Zloy asked. 

“Well, I wasn’t expecting you to-”

“Details, details,” Zloy shushed. “We were pressed for options and you know it. Unless you want the Hermiton Herald to be challenged?”

“It’s going to get challenged either way,” Cleo said. “What matters is  _ how.” _

Her pale fingers began dancing across the keyboard of her laptop. “Ideally, we want to strike first, so it looks like they're the desperate retaliation. Discredit The Jungle Vine from the start.”

"Cleo," Scar said. "That means a new editorial, then? Bumped up to the front page?"

"To slander the NHO's _ terrifically  _ good name?" Cleo smirked. "My specialty, and my pleasure."

“And it’s time we call up some favors too,” he said. “Inject some more…  _ agreeable _ numbers in the mix. Zloy?”

“On it.”

Scar grinned and leaned back with a nod. Anticipation thrummed within him, nearing exhilaration at the thought of what they could do with their vast resources.

He ignored the way Cub glanced at him, mouth pressed in a thin, anxious line.

Doc would know the price of challenging ConCorp - challenging _him_ , soon enough. He would relish the moment greatly when it came.

* * *

#  Hermiton Herald 

### **The New Hermit Order: Hermiton’s Greatest Threat to Stability**

#####  _The dangerous mafia gang has spread its roots all over the city. We must fight back before it's too late._

  
By Zloy Xanpetrov, Hermiton Herald Journalist  
19 August 2304

6th of November, 2289. Four figures clad in coats and weapons gather in an underground bunker, just 1 kilo away from the Administration House of Hermiton. 

  


They greet each other with knowing smirks. Money, papers, and plans are exchanged. Talk of power lasts through the night.

  


This was the beginning of the New Hermit Order, a mafia which would become the largest operator of illegal activity in Hermiton, and one of the biggest in the world. On this night, the biggest threat to Hermiton's society that we face today was born.

  


Knowledge of the group's leaders and the powers at their disposal is mostly shrouded in mystery. But what we do know is the ridiculously long list of crimes they have since committed in the past 15 years.

  


**81 percent of black market activity in Hermiton conducted by the NHO.**

  


In the  _ Hermiton Police Annual Assessment Report _ of 2304, the New Hermit Order was listed among the major threats to Hermiton’s stability. Specifically, the  _ Illegal Sales  _ section traced 91% of confiscated illegal firearms to NHO involvement. It further lists 89% of other weaponry, 66% of illegal chemicals, and 78% of other black market items as being exchanged through NHO related persons or areas. 

  


Additionally, it is estimated that 72% of legal items that never paid their due tariffs or taxes before or after being sold were also dealt with NHO hands.

  


This highlights 2 key facts. 

  


First, that the New Hermit Order has a massive shadow over the black market of Hermiton which it continuously grows, establishing their immediate threat and status as an operator of illegal activity.

  


And second, that they have a vast array of people and resources with which to accomplish their nefarious purposes. 

  


Tracking the  _ Hermiton Police Annual Assessment Report  _ of 2289, the worth of illegal items smuggled into and out of the city-state was estimated to be at around $359 billion dollars. In 2304? According to the report, $678 billion. The numbers slowly increased in that time period.

  


Another startling statistic - in the past 15 years, rate of crime in Hermiton have gone up by 15 percent. 

  


Examining these numbers, and then looking back on the NHO, perhaps we shouldn’t be so shocked. 

  


**Government corruption and the NHO go hand in hand.**

  


Data scientist Jevin Iridium and economist Hypnotized Terra of Hermiton University recently did their own crunch of the numbers and found that the data provided by the report was off - instead of $678 billion, the estimated total worth of illegally transported items is valued at around $802 billion instead. The culprit? Rounding errors. 

  


Anyone older than 10 knows how rounding works. Anyone working with math professionally has their work checked and double checked and, in the cases of important reports, checked a few more times for good measure. A series of rounding errors, all downwards, can only mean that someone was doing this deliberately. 

  


The Government Accountability Project found that  __The Jungle Vine_ , a “non profit organization for clear and reliable news,” donated 11,000,000 million dollars to the Department of Public Relations, as per listed by the organization’s own spending list. Despite the fact that public offices rarely every received donations at all. _

__

  


__

_ The Jungle Vine _ received its startup money from “private donations.” The same organization has, according to the  __Hermiton Police Annual Report_ , 2304 edition, heavy suspected ties to the NHO. _

____

  


____

Furthermore, a current appeal made on behalf on an “anonymous entity” to remove the law requiring organizations to make public sources of income and areas of spending was introduced last year, and is currenting pending in courts. 

____

  


____

Additionally, the court trial of several notable government figures, as the Herald covershere, for potential bribery and quid pro quo was announced just a few months ago. After the initial shock, news around the trials have died down, despite how the investigation is ongoing and has only uncovered more evidence. 

____

  


____

That evidence leads to involvement from, of course, the NHO, with so far even a confession of bribery by Dr. Stress Marri of destroying records.

____

  


____

It should go without question that any attempt to mask the transparency of our government which we must put out trust in is an attack on the fundamental ideals of Hermiton itself, based around democracy and fairness. That the NHO would go so far in cracking this foundation and then attempting a cover up should in itself be a cause of serious alarm.

____

  


____

**Assassinations, threats, and "mysterious disappearances", oh my!**

____

  


____

No mafia is complete without threats of death, and the New Hermit Order certainly does not disappoint. Continuing its objective to create a worse version of The Godfather, assassinations and assassination attempts trail its path like a bleeding goat being chased by lynxes.

____

  


____

On a June morning in 2295, newly appointed federal justice Joseph Hills received a letter in his mailbox. The subsequent message included phrases such as “desist all investigations before we are forced to take drastic action,” and “do not dare step within the bounds of our drawn and respected territory, which your predecessors have all understood and which you, as the highest word of law in the land, should understand the precedence and thus importance of.”

____

  


____

Wordy. And threatening. (And a waste of paper.) It was signed, “The New Hermit Order”.

____

  


____

Just three days earlier, Hills had sworn to oppose criminal activity and work for the safety of Hermiton, naming specifically “organized crime” as a major concern.

____

  


____

The letter was immediately reported to the Department of Criminal Investigations, and the media took off with the news. 

____

  


____

Throughout the next few years, such threats, both direct, and indirect, have appeared in the inboxes and mailboxes of many who have spoken against the NHO or implied to do so in some way. A full list of Hermiton Herald coverage on the issue can be found here.

____

  


____

Needless to say, the NHO are not above petty threats.

____

  


____

**Spreading the roots of instability within Hermiton, supervillain style.**

____

  


____

Crime has gone up in Hermiton. So has social instability.

____

  


____

A poll by the Topmass Research Center in January of 2304 found that 82 percent of Hermians have doubts in the government to handle crime effectively, up from 54 percent in 2294. 

____

  


____

Similarly, it found that the percentage of people who believed society is in a stable state was 35 percent, compared to 68 percent in 2294. Indeed, this past decade has seen a rise in uncertainty about the future, as crime rates soar and debate around new and changing power laws grow more and more heated.

____

  


____

Speaking of which, the New Hermit Order has a reputation for seeking power in powers - various sources including official reports, video footage, and eyewitness accounts show that they have a variety of people working beneath their shadow, and that they often target the young, the lost, and the potentially powerful. 

____

  


____

For example, the Blue District fires of 2300 have been linked to a NHO member with a pyrokinetic ability, and the sinking of  _ Sally’s Grievance _ just half a nautical mile off Hermiton shores has been confirmed to have superpower ability behind the attack. That ship was carrying, among many things, results from various criminal lab tests that could implicate the NHO in a slew of other illegal charges, as well as high-tech gear that would better equip the Hermiton Police Department to fight organized crime.

____

  


____

High profile crimes linked to the NHO can be found here. See a pattern?

____

  


____

**Organized crime is more powerful than ever.**

____

  


____

What is presented here is nothing new - it is merely all the pieces put together. The New Hermit Order seeks to place itself as the highest chain of authority within this city and within this country of Hermiton, and it has established the routes it will go down to do so. 

____

  


____

Who might be at the head of this mysterious operation? What is known so far is that there are four “heads”, the highest authority on NHO affairs, with one of them being the final voice. While there is currently no official name, the underground has deemed them “The Goatfather” (or The Goatmother, which is one thing we won’t judge). 

____

  


____

There’s other times where they are simply referred to as “The Goat.”

____

  


____

0/100 on Critical Movie reviews, to say the least. The pun degrades the serious tone of the premise. Pick an atmosphere and stick with it, geez.

____

  


____

What is confirmed is that all four of these heads have powers, and all four of them have the power to topple the economy of Hermiton if they so choose.

____

  


____

There is legislation in place to prevent superpowers from destroying society. The same standard, and even higher, need to be placed on those with an organized, coordinated ability to do so and who would actively wish to if for their own gain.

____

  


____

Over the past 15 years the New Hermit Order has been slowly getting bolder, more aggressive, more powerful, and it is time the government and the citizens stand up to this and stop them before it's too late. 

____

  


____

Al Capone’s reign of terror was only ended by eliminating the factors which allowed him to rise in the first place. Italy allowed its mafia to gather power over decades when it could have choked them sooner, and forced the country in a near civil war with hundreds of thousands of casualties before it finally resolved the problem. And Japan had an entire era known as the “Silent Age” marking the time period where the Yakuza was, functionally,  _ the _ government.

____

  


____

Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it. Hermiton must learn from the mistakes of past countries. Organized crime is not new, and superpowers are not new, but they have only gotten more dangerous with the rise of technology.

____

  


____

We must face this threat and overcome it, before we all pay the price.

____

  


____

  


____

**_The Hermiton Herald has been a trusted new source of Hermiton since its founding nearly 500 years ago. Learn more about us here._**

 _ ___

* * *

____

“Careful - those are fragile. The buyer wants them as undamaged as possible.”

____

“What’s in these boxes anyway?”

____

Iskall glanced back at the door, rusted and whining with the faint night wind. The warehouse was about as typically abandoned as they got, creaking timbers and the faint scratches of rodents clawing along in the shadows. 

____

“I don’t know,” they shrugged, even though they do. But denial, as they’d learned, was much more effective that straight up dodging the question. Telling people they couldn’t say anything brought questions and curiosity, but playing the fellow ignorant usually left things unpried.

____

“Not my business. Our job is just to get them to the other warehouse without anyone knowing.”

____

Their accomplice nodded and slowly hefted the boxes up, placing it onto the shopping cart. 

____

“You think we’ll get caught?” he asked, and there was a hint of nervousness in his tone.

____

Oh dear. There was doubt. They couldn’t have that. 

____

“No,” they replied easily. “We’re just transporting a few boxes from one place to another. Make sure nothing breaks and we’ll be fine. If anyone asks, let me do the talking.”

____

There was a quick nod. The two continued working in silence.

____

Iskall wondered, of course, what ConCorp’s notoriously tight-lipped and cryptic leadership wanted with specific amounts of highly illegal and definitely very dangerous chemicals, plus a few random books. 

____

But they were hired to do a job, not to pry, and Iskall had a reputation for a _reason._ Even if it was tied more to death and less to smuggling. 

____

Oh well. It would be money in _their_ pocket, at the end of the day. There wasn’t much of more importance than that.

____

**Author's Note:**

> Took 5 months but I FINALLY WROTE ANOTHER FIC IN THEY AU EYYY. Leopardmask and Blueticked are still around, helping me brainstorm and finalize ideas! But it looks like I'll take the helm on this for now. Very excited to continue - especially after early Jan. finals lol (I should be studying and finishing other school projects). 
> 
> Needless to say, there's a lot of backstory and background stuff that affects things. The Alt. Character Interpretation tag is simply stating that backstory and a different environment has effects on the personalities of some Hermits here (the most obvious of which being Scar, who I just can't resist writing in a villainy way lol). But there are no true heroes and villains here...
> 
> As always, let me know what you thought?


End file.
